After noticing our earlier post on their candidate's links to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramhoff, Team Hayworth suggested we note U.S. Sen. John McCain's ties to fundraiser Scott Rothstein, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison last month for running a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Here's the story from Jonathan J. Cooper, via HuffPo:

A now-disbarred Florida lawyer who admitted to orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme gave more than $180,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, contributions that McCain's Senate rival is now making an issue in their competitive primary.

Scott Rothstein was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison after he confessed to running a $1.2 billion fraud using faked legal settlements.

Rothstein also was a key contributor and fundraiser who bundled more than $500,000 in campaign contributions for McCain's 2008 race, according to the campaign finance watchdog Center for Responsive Politics.

The exact amount he raised from others is unknown, but Rothstein boasted to the Wall Street Journal in 2008 that he raised as much as $1.1 million for McCain.

The campaign of former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging McCain in Arizona's Aug. 24 Republican primary, demanded that the four-term senator account for and donate all of the money connected to Rothstein.

"McCain can't have it both ways. He can't be the champion of campaign finance reform one day and then take more than a million dollars from a convicted felon the next day," Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders said.

Read the whole thing here.